This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The first time I met Mike Lee, he appeared to me to be approachable and sincere.

I would be disappointed.

I had learned of a pending deal between then Gov. Jon Huntsman, then-Sen. Bob Bennett and Nevada Sen. Harry Reid where the Democratic leader would get behind a Utah initiative to create a wilderness area around Skull Valley on the Goshute reservation to block nuclear waste from coming to the area. In return, Bennett would put his clout behind Reid's efforts to prevent nuclear waste coming to Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

When I asked the governor's office about it, I was summoned to an interview with Lee, who at the time was Huntsman's general counsel. Lee said if I broke the story at that time, I would blow the whole deal because negotiations were still a bit jittery with Reid. I agreed to hold off and Lee assured me the scoop once the deal was done. He also said Huntsman's office owed me one and Lee personally would try and accommodate any future inquiries I might have with the governor's office.

To make a long story short, he broke that promise and whenever I tried to call him again, I would be funneled to the governor's press secretary instead.

That in itself is no big deal, nor was it at the time. But it proved to be the beginning of a pattern.

Later, when Lee was running for the U.S. Senate, it was revealed he was lobbying the Legislature on behalf of 1-800-Contacts and he was not registered as a lobbyist, a violation of state law. As I tried to source the story, I was assured by 1-800-Contacts lobbyist Spencer Stokes that Lee only did legal work for the company and just answered legislators' questions about the law. After I wrote about the controversy and Stokes' explanation, I received calls from several legislators telling me Lee had heavily lobbied them and the discussions went far beyond legal questions.

I didn't know it at the time, but Stokes, who also collaborated with Lee on behalf of EnergySolutions, was on tap to become Lee's chief of staff if Lee won election for the Senate.

Also, during the campaign, a group of Republicans crashed a back-to-school party hosted by the University of Utah for married students at the Married Student Housing Complex near campus. The uninvited guests passed out campaign literature, pestered people to register to vote and helped themselves to the pizza that had been purchased for the married students. When I was told that several Mike Lee campaign helpers were among the offenders, a Lee campaign spokesman assured me the campaign itself knew nothing about it. Then I received a copy of an email that had been sent by the Lee campaign telling all its supporters to make sure they go to that party and register people to vote, and that there was free pizza.

I bring all this up now because, once again, Sen. Lee wants us to trust him.

He recently asked the Federal Elections Commission to allow him to accept unlimited funds from corporations and the wealthy in the form of his own super PAC. He would use the money to support candidates of his choice, which would make him a pretty powerful guy in campaign circles.

This is troubling to me because of some intriguing connections.

Lee clerked twice for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito — once when Alito was on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and then when he was on the Supreme Court.

Alito has taken some heat from critics who point out that he testified under oath at his Senate confirmation hearing that he would respect the principle of prior established legal decisions as precedent.

Then he voted to overturn a half century of established law in the Citizens United case, which said corporations were like individuals and could contribute unlimited amounts of money to super PACs.

Lee seems to be learning from his former mentor, whose vote led to a 5-4 win for the corporations and super PACs, and for the wealthy political players, the Koch brothers, whose political strategy retreats have been dutifully attended by Alito. —